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Your support makes all the difference.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nRead more<\/span><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nI<\/span>t\u2019s a strange thing, hearing men on the news talk about the Epstein files. They are quietly sombre, shaking their heads with mutterings of \u201coh yes, awful, isn\u2019t it?\u201d Then, in the very next breath, they\u2019re all clinical professionalism, holding forth about the wider political implications and how it has put Keir Starmer in a perilous position. <\/p>\nNot so the women in my life \u2013 or even the female broadcasters, for that matter. They are aghast, astounded, horrified. Most of all, they are furious. Incandescent with rage. For them, the victim of this unfurling horror story isn\u2019t Starmer. And it\u2019s certainly not the monarchy, who may now purport to be standing with the victims, but were glacially slow to say or do anything previously \u2013 even after Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor\u2019s car-crash interview with Emily Maitlis sent shockwaves around the world in 2019.<\/p>\n
With each new revolting atrocity that comes to light, you can all but feel the fury radiating out of women \u2013 palpable, pulsating. This is not a political <\/em>story for us. It is a deeply personal one. We see a tale, not of entitled men being toppled from power, but of powerless, nameless women and girls being habitually abused, assaulted and raped \u2013 bought, sold and used as playthings by men so wealthy that they truly believed they were untouchable. And for good reason: lawmakers reviewing unredacted materials in the Epstein files say that the Department of Justice\u2019s redactions have obscured potentially important names. Moreover, they\u2019ve claimed that some of these redactions may have been politically motivated, rather than legally required.<\/p>\nThe curtain has well and truly fallen away, but women are left slumped in shock as so many modern-day wizards of Oz continue to operate with impunity. Even if they haven\u2019t technically committed any crimes, we can finally see how these so-called masters of the universe talk and think about us when we aren\u2019t there.<\/p>\n
As Helen Rumbelow writes stirringly in The Times<\/em>: \u201cThe sensation of clicking on the Epstein files is like taking the back off the world clock. We see behind the grand fa\u00e7ade usually presented by men who run the planet, in government, academia, royalty and business, from presidents to Andrew, the former prince. <\/p>\n\u201cWe see the contrast between their public distancing and their private networking. But we also see their everyday exchanges making the cogs of the world turn, oiled by porn-saturated woman-hating.\u201d<\/p>\n
This news is not<\/em> news to the majority of women \u2013 it\u2019s all so crushingly predictable. But it is now impossible to ignore; the Epstein files are a visceral reminder, shoved in our faces, of the misogyny that continues to seethe just below the surface of the polished, \u201ccivilised\u201d front. <\/p>\nLest we forget, the convicted sex offender, Harvey Weinstein, once attended a women\u2019s march before his heinous crimes were finally fully exposed. How many other prominent men are hiding behind empty platitudes about victims, while in truth they\u2019ve hardly given them a moment\u2019s thought?<\/p>\n
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open image in gallery<\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>Mass marches and protests are held every International Women\u2019s Day, calling for gender equality and an end to violence against women and girls (PA)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nThe current collective anger at watching women being treated more like objects than human beings, and the profound and lasting harm repeatedly inflicted on the most vulnerable, has become almost unbearable. Yet it also has echoes of other pivotal points at which we\u2019ve witnessed pronounced cultural shifts. <\/p>\n
The #MeToo movement gained worldwide momentum in 2017, for example; widespread marches took place that same year in opposition to Donald Trump\u2019s inauguration as President after his infamous \u201cgrab \u2019em by the p*ssy\u201d remarks were thrust into the public sphere. More recently, there was national outcry at the rape and murder of Sarah Everard by serving police officer Wayne Couzens in 2021. Protests swiftly followed, an uprising of women demanding the right to feel safe as they went about their lives and an end to violence. They were standing up and saying \u2013 screaming, even \u2013 enough is enough.<\/p>\n
But it wasn\u2019t enough, was it? Abuse didn\u2019t stop in the entertainment industry because of #MeToo, any more than abusers were flushed out of the Met Police. And that simmering frustration at the speed of change \u2013 or lack thereof \u2013 is adding fuel to the current rising temperature today. Reeling at the seemingly relentless accounts of unfeeling cruelty and sexual violence against women, we\u2019ve reached boiling point. But what to do with all that scalding hot anger? Where to put it? <\/p>\n
History has shown us at least one potential response when women reach a critical mass of wrath meets DGAF (Don\u2019t Give A F***) energy: we could all simply go on strike. Come next month, will there really be anything to celebrate on International Women\u2019s Day? Wouldn\u2019t it be more sensible to rebrand it International Walkout Day?<\/p>\n
Hear me out. It has actually been done before, and to great effect \u2013 most notably in Iceland (of course<\/em> it was Iceland), where, on 24 October 1975, women held a one-day nationwide walkout. The aim was to demonstrate women\u2019s indispensable work in keeping the economy and, let\u2019s face it, entire country afloat, and to protest against wage discrepancy and unfair employment practices. <\/p>\n\n
\nIt is suddenly impossible to ignore, a visceral reminder of the misogyny that continues to seethe just below the surface<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
At the time, women in paid employment made less than 60 per cent of what their male counterparts earned. And so they demanded better by withholding that most valuable of resources: their labour. This was both paid and unpaid; on what became known as the Women\u2019s Day Off, participants not only didn\u2019t turn up to work, they also refused to carry out any domestic labour whatsoever. No cooking. No cleaning. No childcare. For 24 hours, women simply walked out on their responsibilities \u2013 and the country ground to a halt. <\/p>\n
Fish factories, along with banks and some shops, had to close because of their majority female workforces. Employers bought colouring materials and sweets in advance to prepare for dads bringing their kids to work for the day. Perhaps the most amusing knock-on effect was that supermarkets sold out of sausages \u2013 the only thing that many men apparently knew how to cook. It\u2019s no coincidence the day also became known as \u201cthe long Friday\u201d. One can only imagine how the hours must have dragged for the male populace, suddenly put in charge of making dinner and looking after their own children. <\/p>\n
An impressive 90 per cent of Iceland\u2019s female population took part, including in rural areas. The results were swift and impressive: Iceland\u2019s parliament passed a law guaranteeing equal rights the following year. Four years after that, Vigd\u00eds Finnbogad\u00f3ttir became the first democratically elected female president in the world. The legacy lives on: Iceland has ranked first in the World Economic Forum\u2019s annual Global Gender Gap Index, which comprehensively assesses countries\u2019 gender equality, for 16 consecutive years.<\/p>\n
Icelandic women have not held onto that coveted crown by resting on their laurels. Initially every 10 years, and then with greater frequency, women have stopped work early on the anniversary of the big Day Off. In 2023, they went a step further, staging a second strike day. This time, they were protesting not just the continuing gender pay gap but violence against women. It culminated in a mass demonstration in Reykjavik, totalling around 100,000 people, one of whom was Iceland\u2019s then-prime minister, Katr\u00edn Jakobsd\u00f3ttir. She set the laudable goal of achieving \u201cfull gender equality\u201d by 2030.<\/p>\n
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open image in gallery<\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>The Women’s Day Off in 1975 saw 90% of Iceland\u2019s women strike (Snorri Zophoniasson\/Women’s History Archives)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nBut this kind of organised action isn\u2019t limited to those progressive Nordic folks. Just last year, historian Emily Callaci published the book Wages for Housework<\/em>, detailing the radical feminist, anti-capitalist movement started in the early 1970s, which called for all women\u2019s unpaid labour and caring work to be recognised \u2013 and, crucially, renumerated. It was created by the International Feminist Collective, co-founded by Mariarosa Dalla Costa, Silvia Federici and Selma James, with demands first stated in Manchester at the third National Women\u2019s Liberation Conference in 1972. They later took inspiration from Iceland\u2019s Day Off with their slogan: \u201cWhen women stop, everything stops.\u201d<\/p>\nFrom these roots have grown contemporary movements; James, now aged 95 but showing no sign of slowing down, has been the international coordinator of the Global Women\u2019s Strike since 2000. That first year, this movement seeking to value all women\u2019s work \u2013 and all women\u2019s lives \u2013 orchestrated widespread action and demonstrations across 60 countries. They still organise today, often planning collective action like marches on 8 March to coincide with International Women\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m calling it \u2013 this year, maybe we should all join them. This year, maybe it\u2019s time to channel this present rage and just down tools for the day. This year, maybe we need to hit the patriarchy in the only place it ever really hurts: their pockets.<\/p>\n
If hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, it really <\/em>hath no fury like a woman who\u2019s seen too many of her sisters oppressed, assaulted and violated by the most heinous, putrid, evil of men. Who\u2019s with me? <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it. Your support makes all the difference. Read more It\u2019s a strange thing, hearing men on the news talk about the Epstein files. They are quietly sombre, shaking their heads with mutterings of \u201coh yes, awful, isn\u2019t it?\u201d Then, in the very next breath, they\u2019re all clinical professionalism, holding forth about the wider political implications and how it has put Keir Starmer in a perilous position. Not so the women in my life \u2013 or even the female broadcasters, for that matter. They are aghast, astounded, horrified. Most of all, they are furious. Incandescent with rage. For them, the victim of this unfurling horror story isn\u2019t Starmer. And it\u2019s certainly not the monarchy, who may now purport to be standing with the victims, but were glacially slow to say or do anything previously \u2013 even after Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor\u2019s car-crash interview with Emily Maitlis sent shockwaves around the world in 2019. With each new revolting atrocity that comes to light, you can all but feel the fury radiating out of women \u2013 palpable, pulsating. This is not a political story for us. It is a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11847"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}